Juvenile Delinquency

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• Juvenile Delinquency
• Sociology 4141
• Chris Uggen

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• Introductions, Class Survey, and Defining
  Delinquency

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Notecards

• Name (spell phonetically if necessary)
• Contact
• Phone of email you check frequently
• Hometown
• Courses
• Major/minor and related courses
• Experience
• Work or internship (especially in criminal or
  juvenile justice systems)
• Future
• Long-term career goals?
• Motivation
• Why are you here?
• Interests (Optional)
• Ever visited a prison or detention center? Any
  suggestions for projects, trips, or speakers?
• Identification (Optional)
• Physical description and seating tendencies

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Syllabus and Logic of Course

• Extent and distribution of juvenile delinquency
• Know this by next week we will later argue about
  what the numbers mean, but arrests and survey
  results are social facts we must consider
• Statistics give one view of delinquency while
  monographs give others
• Mainly a lecture format descriptive statistics
• Cut through (media-fed) preconceptions about
  juvenile delinquency

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Sociological Theories

• Delinquency as group or collective action
• But rational choice/juvenile justice system is
  individualized and not geared for group behavior
• Bartolas gives theories assumptions, concepts,
  and evaluation
• Format Lecture, discussion, and application (in
  exams)

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Application to Case StudiesGroups of Data

• Grunge and Cobain
• Familiar subculture (dirtbags, burnoutsbottom of
  high school hierarchy)
• Relation of culture and subculture to social
  position
• Urban gangs at peak of youth violence in Monster
  (L.A. Crip)
• Girls in the juvenile justice system
• Format Questions and Discussion

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Juvenile Delinquency Policy

• What have we tried?
• What works?
• Evidence?
• Format Lecture, book, discussion, some video

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Course Requirements and Expectations

• Reading varies from quick to difficult
• Grades
• 20 Active Participation (10 contribution and
  10 group/individual exercises)
• 25 Midterm
• Know extent and distribution work with theories
• Vote on format
• 25 Working Paper or Service Learning Option
• OR see me if you are already working or
  volunteering
• OR bigger research project/proposal for grad
  students and ambitious undergrads
• 30 Final Exam format TBA

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• Course Policies
• Turn in work on time
• Grading convert grades to points in spreadsheet,
  rank, and draw lines (A vs B vs C grades).
• Note on offensive materials
• Note on course page (pdf and ppt)
• Teaching philosophy
• Anonymous grading
• Evaluations
• Accessibility
• Learn both social facts and big ideas about them

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Self-Report Survey

• Old method in juvenile delinquency classes
• Gives data on class familiarity with activities
• Voluntary - Not a graded activity
• --------------------------------------------------
  --------------------------------------
• READ BEFORE CLASS
• Skim if necessary, but get a feel for the
  material. Good to bring books
• Next time
• Jan 20 Defining and Measuring Delinquency
• BARTOLAS 1 ADOLESCENCE Pp 1-26
• LUNDMAN 1 JUVENILE DELINQUENCY Pp 3-30
• CROSS 1 YELLING LOUDLY AT FIRST Pp 1-14
• CROSS 2 I HATE MOM, I HATE DAD Pp 15-27